The keenest minds are the ones that have been seasoned by practical experience, reflection and recognition of the sub conscious. This is where you wisdom lives.

Our journey through life tends to take 4 majors steps as we mature:

1. We do not know what we do not know
2. We begin to learn what we do not know – life lessons develop our understanding
3. We KNOW but cannot act – When you say “I should have done/known” you are here
4. We KNOW what we KNOW and can act of it to benefit – this is our wisdom stage.

Theoretical knowledge without practical experience might be compared to a large mass of undirected energy. Until it is focused, it is difficult to direct the energy to a useful end.

You want the cheese … should you take it?

Practical experience is the lens through which the energy of knowledge may be focused and directed toward activities that will provide the greatest benefit. When you learn new concepts or have an idea that has not yet been tested, make it a practice to think through its application carefully before implementation.

When you have considered the possibilities, and it still seems to be a good idea — get into action. The only way to get practical experience is to get to work executing your idea, letting your sub conscious wisdom guide you along the way.

Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized, and intelligently directed, through practical plans of action, to the definite end of accumulation of money.

If you have sound character, your decisions will be sound and you will generally not have worry about your reputation.

Thomas Jefferson once said that a majority is one man with the courage of his convictions. If you have the courage that comes from the sincere conviction that you are a person of sound character, an honest, dependable, kind, and caring person, you will never have to worry about what others think of you.

If you know in your own heart that you are a good and decent person, you can meet life’s challenges head-on and without fear of what others think.

High wages and the capacity to assume responsibility are two things that belong together.

It’s been said that a leader’s job is to inspire others to high levels of achievement, while a manager’s job is to protect the assets of investors. The most successful people are those who recognize the similarities and differences between leadership and management responsibilities, fulfilling both with equal skill and aplomb. When they do, they realize the rewards that are commensurate with their efforts.

When you cheerfully accept responsibility for your own actions and do your job in a way that protects the interests of your employer, you will soon be entrusted with more and more responsibilities. And those who have the capacity to assume responsibility — for the success of the project or organization — will always be paid the highest salaries.

There is no compromise or negotiation when it comes to who will run your life. Either you take charge and live a productive life of your choosing or you allow yourself to be ruled by circumstances. But there will inevitably be setbacks.

Like everyone else, you will have days when everything goes right and you are on top of the world. Relish those days, enjoy them, and remember them. Recall the euphoria that accompanied them when you need an extra measure of positive thinking to get back in the saddle after you’ve experienced an embarrassing and painful fall.

The most intuitive people pay close attention to how life turns from the choice we make. Do good or bad things happen from my choices? Many believe there is a big scoring system used to push us through the learning process. If you have ever asked yourself…why does this keep happening to me….you have experienced it. The lessons tend to get harder until we learn what we need too.

The Hindu call it Karma, a concept of reincarnation (rebirth after death).

According to Hinduism (the main religion of India), after death a person’s soul, or spiritual essence, transmigrates (moves) into a new body and is reborn. When the soul transmigrates, it may enter a body that is in a higher or lower state of existence than was lived by the previous person.

For example, the soul could become a king, an animal, or even an insect. Where the soul may go next is determined by karma—the thoughts, words, and actions of the person who previously inhabited the soul. If the person’s karma (cause and effect of choices) was good, the soul will be reborn into a higher state of existence. Conversely, if the karma has been bad, the soul will inhabit a lower state.

In the old West, a cowboy expression went, “There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode, and there never was a rider that couldn’t be throwed.”

Its up to you which you want to be! So the question is:

If no one is looking….does it Matter?

The imagination is the workshop of the soul, it is we shape all the plans for our achievement.

Going the extra mile can give you insight and a good reputation, both of which attract opportunity. Many obvious opportunities are found in places no one else has bothered to venture.

If you put in the extra effort to make a good project an even better one, or you get to know your equipment better than anyone else on your shift, you will see things others overlook and be in a position to make use of them. Leaders who need a job done think first of people they know who will do it well. If other people respect you for the quantity and the quality of your work, you will find yourself advancing past others who regard their jobs as drudgery. For all the extra service that you’ve rendered, you’ll find yourself more than amply compensated by opportunities others never grasp.

It is possible to go through life without ever accepting any responsibility, but such freedom from the cares of the world comes at an enormous financial cost. If you make it a practice to go out the back door when responsibility walks through the front, you will also miss out on the opportunities that always accompany responsibility. In almost any vocation, profession, or calling, your remuneration is directly proportional to the responsibility that accompanies your position.

Make it a practice to volunteer for more responsibility or simply to assume it. There are times when you must get on with the task at hand without ever being formally told you’re in charge of it. If you demonstrate that you are a can-do kind of person, responsibility and the higher pay that accompanies it will come to you.

When you ask another person to do something, it may help both him and you if you tell him what to do, why he should do it, when he should do it, where he should do it, and how he may best do it.

We are all influenced by our background and experience. We perceive instructions in the context of our education, experience, heritage, the culture of our organization, and a number of other variables. Good managers know this, and they make sure that their instructions are clear, concise, and well understood.

They also know that they must walk a fine line between conveying adequate instructions and killing workers’ incentive by not allowing them sufficient latitude to do their jobs. You may strike the right balance between instruction and motivation by encouraging employees to participate in setting objectives for themselves and their teams, by helping them develop plans for achieving their goals, and by making sure that each individual clearly understands the team’s mission and his or her role in achieving it. Suggest that team members check in occasionally to report their progress, then get out of their way and cheer them on to victory.

Faith is the element, the “chemical” which, when mixed with prayer, gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.

The “loneliness at the top” that senior officials often feel comes from the certain knowledge that they alone are responsible for the failure or success of the organization. They may share their authority with associates, but not their responsibility. When a sports franchise suffers a losing season, the general manager and the coaches are held accountable. They, not the individual players, are responsible for the failure of the team; the team merely followed orders. When you become the leader, when you set the course, you must accept responsibility for the outcome.

If you do a job another’s way, he or she must take the responsibility. If you do it your way, you must take the responsibility.

Through some strange and powerful principle of “mental chemistry” which she has never divulged, Nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire “that something” which recognizes no such word as impossible, and accepts no such reality as failure.

Don’t leave something as important as your character to chance.

Choose the character traits you admire, and work to develop them. Don’t be discouraged when you stumble. Building character is a process that takes a lifetime to complete. Fortunately, like anything else, the more you work at character building, the better you become at it.

Some people resemble a cheap watch. They are not dependable.

It would be unrealistic to expect an inexpensive, mass-produced watch to perform with the same degree of accuracy as a finely crafted Rolex.

If you try and fail, make another effort, and still another, until you succeed.

If you can keep trying and learn from past setback, there is a good chance you will reach your goal. Only one thing is positively true, those who give up – fail!

If you think achieving great heights of success will be easy, you either don’t understand at all how the process works or you have your sights set too low. Reaching the top of any field is difficult, time-consuming, and often tedious.

The reason it isn’t crowded at the top is that most people won’t do the things that are necessary to achieve success. They are all too willing to give up when the going gets tough. If you need inspiration to persevere, read the biographies of men and women who have achieved greatness in their lives. You will find that they prevailed because they refused to quit. They continued to toil alone long after the masses had given up and gone home.

Opportunity never sneaks up on those who straddle the fence of indecision.

Successful people are decisive people. When opportunities come their way, they evaluate them carefully, make a decision, and take appropriate action. They know that indecision wastes time that could be spent on more productive tasks. They also avoid unnecessary risks by implementing their decisions gradually. They don’t attempt to make every decision at the beginning. Each action is contingent upon the success of the one that preceded it.

Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s wisest men, is said to have used a simple method to make difficult decisions. He drew a line down the center of a sheet of paper, and on one side he listed the “pros” of the decision; on the other, he listed the “cons.” In addition to simplifying the decision-making process, the list also served as a graphic illustration of the advantages and disadvantages of any decision, regardless of its complexity. The impact of the decision could then be quickly and easily assessed.

No individual has sufficient experience, education, native ability, and knowledge to ensure the accumulation of a great fortune, without the cooperation of other people.

Dealing with adversity begins with analyzing and accepting your situation for what it is. When you realize that things are not nearly as bad as they might have been, you have taken the first step toward working your way through the problem. It is a truism that you will never be asked to carry a heavier load than you can bear, but it sometimes helps you better appreciate that fact if you volunteer some of your time to help those who are less fortunate than you are.

When adversity overtakes you, it pays to be thankful it was not worse instead of worrying over your misfortune.

The only constraints that you have on your income and advancement potential are those you place upon yourself. If you don’t like your position, or if you are unhappy with your salary, do something about it.

–What can you do to make yourself more valuable to your department or your company?

–What tasks have not been completed because no one has the time or the inclination to take care of them?

Look around and identify things that need to be done. Don’t wait to be asked. If you make it a habit to seek out opportunities, to take on new tasks, you will increase your knowledge about the organization and become such a valued employee that your company can’t afford to lose you.

Napoleon Hill liked to tell a story about his grandfather, a wagon builder in North Carolina. When the old man cleared the land for cultivation, he always left a few oak trees in the middle of the field at the mercy of the elements, unsheltered by other trees in the forest. It was from those trees that his grandfather made the wagons’ wheels. Because they were forced to struggle against the fury of nature, they grew strong enough to bear the heaviest load.

Welcome difficult challenges, for the greatest opportunities will come from challenges that force you to expand your mind as you search for creative solutions.

During life’s bleakest hours, take solace in the fact that you are strengthening yourself through struggle so that in the future you will be prepared to take on even greater challenges. Like the old oak tree, you grow strong only when you are forced to struggle.